“Contrasts at Calvary” (Part Two)

This week, we prepare for resurrection Sunday by considering critical contrasts that occurred during the crucifixion of Christ. Yesterday we saw the contrast of light versus darkness, today we add two more:

MERCY vs. JUDGMENT

Christ was Light- utterly holy, utterly righteous, utterly sinless in all things! Yet, He took our judgment so that we could know God’s mercy. He fulfilled His mission in coming, and it was a twofold mission-

• To reveal His holiness
• To redeem our sinfulness

He revealed His deity by His works and His person, but He redeemed our sinfulness by being the Lamb of God, come to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). How?

1. By bearing our sin (1 Peter 2:24- “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed”).
2. By paying for our sin (Col.2:14- “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”)
3. By becoming sin for us (2 Cor.5:21- “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”)

He was judged for our sin! As Christ became sin for us, we see the great contrast of mercy and judgment-

• “Father forgive them….” (Lk.23:34)
• “My God, why….” (Mt.27:46)

Why? He calls for people’s forgiveness on the basis of His personally taking our judgment He was our substitute and took our judgment so that we might receive God’s mercy. He was the merciful High Priest (Heb.2:17) who did not just offer a sacrifice—He became that sacrifice!

Justice was satisfied so that mercy can reign- grace is wrapped up in mercy! And mercy blossomed forth out of the judgment of the Cross, as He who knew no sin became sin for us- bearing our penalty, judgment and curse! It is Psalm 85:10, “Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

What were the results of that sinbearing?

ACCEPTANCE vs. ABANDONMENT (Matt.27:46)

This contrast is seen in two cries:

• Cry of Christ, “My God, why?” is a cry of abandonment.
• Cry of the believer, “access to God by faith” (Rom.5:1-2) is the cry of acceptance!

He was abandoned by God so that we could be accepted by God. For Christ, the price tag attached to our acceptance was His abandonment. Imagine what it meant for Him to be forsaken! No wonder Martin Luther said, “God, forsaken of God- who can know it?”

• He came to His own- they rejected Him.
• He chose twelve disciples- one betrayed, one denied, all forsook Him.
• His human family rejected Him.

BUT- the worst of all was when God forsook His Son (Psalm 22). As sin was placed upon Him, the Father turned away from Him in blessing, and turned His righteous wrath upon Him- because He bore our sins! His cry was the cry of a forsaken sinner- yet He had ever sinned! Yet, now, for the first time in all eternity, Christ finds Himself separated from the Father. For the first time, God the Son is alone, without the presence of the Father to comfort, love and encourage. One man wrote-

“He gazed across the awful gulf through which He must wade, he looked down into the horrible pit in whose depths He must struggle and up whose insurmountable sides He must painfully climb with bleeding hands and feet. He saw sins, sins, pressing in on Him, and knew that as the Sinbearer He must bear them all, and so was left alone- alone with human sin. With your sin and mine.”

Someone else wrote-

“How near He is to us! Never in His whole life did He so completely identify Himself with His own creation. For here He comes to stand by our side, not only where we have to encounter pain and misfortune, but when we are enduring that pain above all pains, that horror in whose presence the brain reels, and faith and love are put out. The horror of a universe without God.”

Why? Because eternal death is separation for the presence of God in His blessings- and Christ suffers that on the Cross on behalf of sinful men and women. His travail of soul, so hidden in the garden, is brutal in its reality. He has entered the land of forsakeness. God is now dealing with Him, not as a loving Father, but as a righteous Judge- and He discharges the full weight of His wrath against His Son. Christ suffers, not merely at the hands of men, but at the hands of God for men- and is abandoned by both!

Why? So that we can be accepted by God. So that God would never forsake us. He suffered alone- isolated from men by darkness, abandoned by God for our sins that He bore. Mountains upon mountains of human guilt were enclosing Him, and so the Father’s face was hid as the pure, lovely, sinless Son of God tasted death for every man (Heb.2). The poet said,

“The scourge, the thorns, the deep disgrace

Those Thou couldest bear, and all refine.

But when your Father veiled His face,

Unutterable pains were Thine.”

So, Christ hangs on the Cross—

Light destroying darkness

Mercy absorbing judgment

Abandoned that we might be accepted

What is left? Tomorrow we will take a final look at the cross this Easter week.